Introducing the teams behind Hong Kong start-ups - watch live as they tell their stories and join the conversation

A screen grab from Sponge, a mobile make-up service founded in Hong Kong by Diane Younes in November 2016.

In January Hong Kong hosted the annual StartmeupHK Festival showcasing the city’s thriving start-up ecosystem. And it is thriving, with government body InvestHK saying the number of start-ups in the city rose from 1,558 in 2015 to 1,926 in 2016, making Hong Kong the fifth fastest-growing start-up ecosystem and the 25th largest overall.

Today we kick off Groovers & Shakers on Facebook Live – a new series in which we’ll shine a spotlight on some of the start-ups in the city and their founders, and find out what it takes to survive.

First up is Diane Younes, founder of Sponge, a mobile hair and make-up service launched in November 2016.

Younes left her job as a corporate lawyer in New York to move with her partner to Hong Kong, where she followed her passion and set up the company. “We are an on-demand service and we take our hair and make-up services to the home, office, hotel or an event with the click of a button.”

The process couldn’t be simpler: potential customers can visit the website, gosponge.com, and choose from a menu of looks.